Popcorn!
For most of the Bills games last year, I got into the habit of making wings. I bake them instead of frying. It takes forever, especially since I like them crispy, but the result is spectacular. I season them with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder while they bake, so they're delicious even before the sauce hits. I haven't bothered to make them much since the Super Bowl, though, because the smell lingers and the cleanup sucks.
I knew today was game day when I got up, but somehow forgot to wear my Bills shirt until halfway through Jets-Pats. The Bills-Bucs game started at four. Lunch had been leftover pizza, and I wasn't really hungry. As the game wore on, the Bills had the lead, but it wasn't a terribly commanding one, and Bucs QB Byron Leftwich seemed like he might find his stride. The momentum was definitely not Billsward at the half. I regretted not having wings on hand, even though the game would've been over by the time they were ready to eat. The Bills game needed to be kicked up a notch, and wings would've been perfect.
I've stopped keeping ready-to-eat snacks in the house. These days, it's all about hot-air popcorn for me. I can prepare it several different ways, it doesn't take too long to make, and it justifies the ownership of a single-purpose kitchen appliance. This, then, was the answer for the game. I would make wing sauce and put it on popcorn. I've done this before, and the result is fantastically delicious. It's quick, the clean-up is much easier, and it's probably even less nutritionally detrimental. I started the sauce simmering on the stove at halftime and waited until part way into the fourth quarter before I popped the popcorn.
Very shortly after I sat back down with my bowl of wing-flavored popcorn, Terrell Owens scored a touchdown, his first in a Bills uniform. Yes! That was precisely the kind of thing I'd had in mind when I started the sauce. It was only after the game that I was reminded that T.O. once left a note on his locker telling reporters to "Getcha Popcorn Ready". In retrospect, the timing was almost creepy. Almost.
I knew today was game day when I got up, but somehow forgot to wear my Bills shirt until halfway through Jets-Pats. The Bills-Bucs game started at four. Lunch had been leftover pizza, and I wasn't really hungry. As the game wore on, the Bills had the lead, but it wasn't a terribly commanding one, and Bucs QB Byron Leftwich seemed like he might find his stride. The momentum was definitely not Billsward at the half. I regretted not having wings on hand, even though the game would've been over by the time they were ready to eat. The Bills game needed to be kicked up a notch, and wings would've been perfect.
I've stopped keeping ready-to-eat snacks in the house. These days, it's all about hot-air popcorn for me. I can prepare it several different ways, it doesn't take too long to make, and it justifies the ownership of a single-purpose kitchen appliance. This, then, was the answer for the game. I would make wing sauce and put it on popcorn. I've done this before, and the result is fantastically delicious. It's quick, the clean-up is much easier, and it's probably even less nutritionally detrimental. I started the sauce simmering on the stove at halftime and waited until part way into the fourth quarter before I popped the popcorn.
Very shortly after I sat back down with my bowl of wing-flavored popcorn, Terrell Owens scored a touchdown, his first in a Bills uniform. Yes! That was precisely the kind of thing I'd had in mind when I started the sauce. It was only after the game that I was reminded that T.O. once left a note on his locker telling reporters to "Getcha Popcorn Ready". In retrospect, the timing was almost creepy. Almost.